As part of its Orbiter Year-Round Series, Other Worlds Austin SciFi Film Festival is excited to present the Texas premiere of the SciFi space race thriller CAPSULE on Wednesday, September 21 (9:00pm) at Flix Brewhouse. Writer/Director Andrew Martin and Producer Paul Forrest will do a Q&A via Skype after the screening.

In the award-winning film set in the Cold War, a dysfunctional space capsule orbits the earth, losing oxygen, with a helpless British astronaut suffering hypoxia locked inside. With limited contact from his own team, he must turn to the deeply suspicious Russians and Americans for help, nations who don’t even know he’s up there.

To get ya'll ready, we've been compiling a list of "Space Firsts!" So check out a couple here, and followour twitter feed for more. And head over to our EVENTS PAGE for more information on the screening and to buy tickets.

If you’ve been to our festival, you know that our films have always looked amazing, with no technical difficulties, and that’s thanks to one company — CINEMATIQ — who will return again this year as a sponsor for the festival.

Even better this year, with FLIX’s amazing screens and 4K projection, and our switch to DCP, our screenings will look better than ever.

Cinematiq is a digital motion picture lab based in San Francisco that specializes in video encoding and DCP creation. For festivals of all sizes, they offer print traffic solutions including consolidating inbound filmmaker media, standardizing formats, DCP creation, quality control, and streamlined distribution. For filmmakers, they offer DCP authoring, remastering, file conversions, close-captioning and subtitling, and digital storage for distribution.

To celebrate our continuing partnership, they’ve offered us a 25% off code on DCP creation for any filmmakers (yes, pass this code around, post it anywhere). Making DCPs start at just $10 a minute. So 25% off here:

(could that be anymore complicated? … wow, technical people worried about security…)

This code is good until SEPT 30th.

Film Deadline and Badge Price Increase loom

like weird rural branch art

by PARSEC (with some help) — “Is that supposed to be a toy?” says Parsec the Space Kitten, self-appointed OWA mascot. “Do you want me to bat at that or something?”

Parsec would also like to remind you that September 30th is the deadline for submitting films for this year’s Other Worlds Austin SciFi Film Festival, taking place December 1-4, 2016 at the Flix Brewhouse.

“I’m the fiercest kitten ever. And I would never get lost in the woods,” continues Parsec. “But if you stopped leaving the house, and hiring a stupid pet sitter to come by and feed me, maybe you wouldn’t want to stand in the corner of some stupid dilapidated house. You can stand in the corner just fine here, and I’ll come by and rub against your leg.”

Also badge prices will go up on October 1, 2016. Every badge is a guaranteed seat for each screening slot December 2-4, and start at just $45. For just $5 more, you can get priority access to the new Under Worlds Austin Horror Sidebar (open to all). There will be eleven screening slots, so that's less than $5 per film plus the Pre-Apocalyptic Happy Hour and the Closing Night Party.

“I’m picking all the movies this year,” says Parsec, though no one at OWA quite understands where he got that idea and we would like to be clear to potential filmmakers that our selections are not being made by a cat.

Until September 30th, SciFi and Horror shorts and Fan Film are only $50, and SciFi and Horror Features are $60. Submissions can be made on FilmFreeway, Withoutabox, and on our own website. For more details, head on over to submissions page.

“So take a roll of yarn, and slowly unfurl it as you head into the woods. Or if you like, you can just frolic with the yarn, poking your head out through the pile as if to say ‘oh hi, i didn’t see you there.’ I love yarn,” confesses Parsec. “Yarn is the best.”

Other Worlds Austin is one of the premier SciFi film festivals in the USA, was selected 'Best of Austin' by the Austin Chronicle, and labelled 'Best Visions of the Future.’

“Also there will be Parsec the Space Kitten T-Shirts for sale,” adds Parsec, although this is yet unconfirmed and maybe wishful thinking on the mascot’s part. This year we’ve expanded the festival to a fourth day, adding a Gala First Night on December 1st. The Gala will include a kick-off pre-party, a First Night Screening, and an Opening Night Party. These badges start at $70 and include the popular 2016: A Brunch Odyssey party on the Saturday morning of the festival.

by TESSA MORISON — Not every space mission ends in disaster, right? To prepare for the Texas premiere of the SciFi thriller CAPSULE we've compiled a list of "All-Time Fictional Astronauts” and sat down with a few of them to grab an interview in the midst of their mission. OWA’s Director of Outreach, Tessa Morrison, ended up with Ellen Ripley on board the Thedus.

ER: Cryo sleep can be slightly unpleasant to wake up from for some, causing minor to moderate nausea. Overall it is not too bad just as long as you don't stay in cryostasis for extended periods of time.

TM: Heh, yeah. I mean when would that ever happen. So what is your mission?

ER: There has been some debate about that with our Science Officer, Ash, but originally our job consisted of hauling mineral ore between Thedus and Earth. We were on our return trip to Earth when we received a distress signal to which we responded. We found a ship, unindigenous to the planet it crashed on. This excursion cost us the lives of one of our crew members.

TM: Oh, wow. That's horrible.

::scraping noise overhead::

TM: Did you hear that? I thought I heard something....

ER: I don't hear anything.

TM: So which of your crew died? What happened?

ER: Executive Officer, Gilbert Kane. Some sort of parasite burst from his chest while we were all having dinner. It got away and we are currently in the process of locating the little S.O.B.

TM: Sorry to hear about Kane. Umm..what is the rest of your crew like? Did you hear something? I swore I heard something.

ER: Well, Captain Dallas and one of our engineers, Brett, have gone missing and they are presumed dead. Other than them we have Navigator Lambert, who is slowly turning into a basketcase, Science Officer Ash wants to study the monster on board instead of kill it, and our other engineer, Parker, who previous to this event was rather lackadaisical has now begun to really pull his weight. Oh, we also have the ship's cat, Jonesy, who is an orange tabby.

TM: Hopefully Dallas and Brett show up eventually. Why do you have a cat on board?

ER: Pest control. Though I think our current infestation is outside his purview.

TM: So with Dallas missing that effectively makes you the top ranking crew member?

ER: Correct. With Dallas missing I am now the ranking officer.

TM: That must be very stressful having all this responsibility heaped onto you all of the sudden. How do you handle it?

ER: I find that humming or singing lightly to myself helps to calm my nerves. One of the lullabies I'd sing to my daughter Amanda works best.

::hissing and clanging heard::

TM: Ummmm, great interviewing you Ripley, but it looks like my time is up and I really should get going! Good luck finding your missing crew members and dealing with your stow-away.

by MARK MARTINEZ — OWA's Social Media Director Mark Martinez was overjoyed when he found out that he would be interviewing one of his childhood heroes. Captain William "Buck" Rogers was not only a hero to America in the late 20th century, but he also became a hero to the entire galaxy in the 25th century. The interview took place at what looked suspiciously like a 1970's disco.

Apollo 18 Captain

Ben Anderson

by BEARS FONTE — Due to budget cuts and the reassignment of priorities to the Skylab mission, NASA’s last lunar mission was Apollo 17. A few years ago, footage surfaced of another – secret – mission that occurred in December of 1974 disguised as a satellite launch. Just this week, notes from a journalist’s interview Apollo 18 Captain Ben Anderson about the impending mission were found in the bottom of box at a garage sale. There is no way to verify the authenticity or even the author of this interview.